When you are running an e-commerce store, inevitably you will experience shopping cart abandonment - customer adds items to their cart but leaves your site before checking out. In fact, the average shopping cart abandonment rate is 68.63%.1 There are a number of reasons for this phenomenon. Customers experience unexpected costs at checkout, the checkout process is too complicated, found a better price elsewhere, etc.2 No matter what the reason, they all equal the same thing - lost sales. The good news is that you can use the abandoned carts report to identify the customers in question and try to win them back!

In this example you can see that "Bob Smith" has abandoned his cart. If we now visit Bob's Customer record, we will see exactly what was in it when he left the site.

Click Customers->"Customer Name"->Shopping Cart

Now, what to do with all of this new found data?

There are few ways to approach your abandoned cart data.

1. Analyze the amount of abandoned carts your site is experiencing then take a look at where you can make improvements. Is the checkout process lengthy or complicated? Should you offer a wish list for convenient "saving" of items the customer is interested in? Is your site optimized for mobile devices?

2. Seize the opportunity to "remind" the customer that they have left something behind. Many successful online businesses use remarketing campaigns to bring the customer back to their cart and encourage the completion of the sale. Often times the emails will include an incentive in the form of a coupon or free shipping.

3. Use the product data to learn about trends in popularity. Are there certain products that are consistently left in carts? Are certain products most likely to be part of a completed sale following an abandoned cart email?

Noggin nugget: Studies show that in 2015, $4tr of merchandise was left in abandoned online shopping carts - the largest amount of cart abandonment ever seen!3

Buy versus build is a discussion that comes up a lot in the IT and management field, especially if you are a consulting firm like Allegro. The problem with "buy" is that it is never that easy. The question should really be "integrate versus invent" as no matter how cookie cutter your new IT application, it will have to be connected with the rest of your IT infrastructure to truly be of any value to your business.

This article from InformationWeek looks at the hidden impact in losing technical expertise for companies that too blindly pursue an "always buy" mentality. While you do not want to painfully build everything yourself, you will need that expertise to skillfully integrate any bought IT system with the rest of your business infrastructure and then extend it to reflect and enhance the unique benefits that your company offers over your competitors.

This is why we at Allegro have turned to open source applications such as the world leading Magento eCommerce platform. Your "buy" choice can start with a baseline Magento installation that has all the core eCommerce functionality necessary. Supplement that with the "build" addition of targeted modules and custom enhancements and integration, whether from your internal staff or quality consulting firms such as Allegro. This type of strong integration and customization is where companies really stand out.

Introduction to Progress Software

"Just wanted to reach out and say "wow!" Initial feedback from the users is that [our system] is much quicker. I have received a lot of great feedback in this short of a time frame. Just wanted to let you know your [Kevin's] efforts have been noticed."